Are schools to blame for students and adults who do not read at “grade level” ?

Here’s an excerpt from a fascinating post about “Plain Language in the Workplace”

Literacy and the reading habits are of major importance in communicating with your audience. A document may be “plain” for one set of readers and not for others. Writers often wrongly assume that their audience is of the same class of readers.They are often surprised to learn that very large numbers of readers cannot read what they have written.

The first literacy surveys in the U.S. done in 1935, showed that the average reader was an adult of limited reading ability. At that time, when the average reading level was 7.8, equivalent to readers in the eighth month of the seventh year in school. The reading levels have remained consistently the same over the years, showing slight improvement each year.

… and this…

Forty-three (43) percent of adults with low literacy skills live in poverty, 17% receive food stamps, and 70% have no job or part-time job. Over 60 % of front-line workers in the goods-producing sector have difficulty applying information from a text to a required task.

More than 20% of adults read at or below the fifth-grade level, far below the level needed to earn a living wage. Adults at Level 1 earned a median income of $240 per week, compared to $681 for those at Level 5. Seventy percent of prisoners are in the two lowest levels. The number of companies reporting shortages of skilled workers doubled between 1995 to 1998. Ninety percent of Fortune 1000 executives reported that low literacy is hurting productivity and profitability.

The studies show that low literacy is not primarily the problem of immigrants, the elderly, high-school dropouts, or people whose first language is not English. Low literacy is a problem that knows no age, education, economic boundaries, or national origins. Most people with low literacy skills were born in this country or have English as their first language.

It does no good to complain that “the schools are not doing their job.” Over 80% of the year 2000 workforce are already out of school. It is a problem that industry, schools, health providers, churches, libraries, and public agencies must address aggressively. In fact, in spite of continuing cuts in school budgets, reading scores have continued to rise, even in inner-city schools.

And…

The studies show that low literacy is not primarily the problem of immigrants, the elderly, high-school dropouts, or people whose first language is not English. Low literacy is a problem that knows no age, education, economic boundaries, or national origins. Most people with low literacy skills were born in this country or have English as their first language.

It does no good to complain that “the schools are not doing their job.” Over 80% of the year 2000 workforce are already out of school. It is a problem that industry, schools, health providers, churches, libraries, and public agencies must address aggressively. In fact, in spite of continuing cuts in school budgets, reading scores have continued to rise, even in inner-city schools.

To read the entire article, follow this link…

http://www.impact-information.com/impactinfo/literacy.htm

For more ideas and resources about literacy, check out the following:

• Google’s Literacy Project: http://www.google.com/literacy/
• State Literacy Resource Center:http://www.literacynet.org/slrc/slrchome.html
• Canadian National Literary Secretariat: http://www.nald.ca/nls.htm
• National Association for Family Literacy: http://www.famlit.org/

William H. DuBay 15903 Vincent Rd. N.W. Poulsbo, WA 98370 Phone: 360 261 8955 Email: info@impact-information.com

6 questions about Bernie Sanders and socialism

Bernie Sanders calls himself “democratic socialist” which he says means he supports policies in a number of European countries such as Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

Sanders says, “In virtually all of those countries, health care is a right of all people, and their systems are far more cost-effective than ours, college education is virtually free in all of those countries, people retire with better benefits, wages that people receive are often higher, distribution of wealth and income is much fairer, their public education systems are generally stronger than ours.”

“When I talk about being a democratic socialist, those are the countries that I am looking at, and those are the ideas that I think we can learn a lot from.”

6 questions about Sanders and socialism

By Dylan Matthews on October 14, 2015, 2:04 p.m. ET @dylanmatt dylan@vox.com

1) Is Bernie Sanders a socialist?

2) Okay, so what’s social democracy, and is it different from socialism?

3) What’s the difference between socialism and communism?

4) This is a lot of weird factionalist history. Can I get a music break?

5) Didn’t the Soviet Union show that socialism can’t work?

6) So why does Sanders identify as a socialist?

For the answers… http://www.vox.com/2015/10/14/9530787/socialism-history-explained

Bernie Sanders’ promise to Sandra Bland’s family member… made and kept

In the first Democratic Presidential Debate, Senator Bernie Sanders kept his promise to #SayHerName #SandraBland.

Sandra Bland was an African-American woman who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas, on July 13, 2015. Her death was classified as a suicide by police and the county coroner, and was followed by protests against her arrest, disputing the cause of death and alleging racial violence against her.^[1] Bland was 28 years old when she died. Bland had been pulled over for a minor traffic violation on July 10 by state trooper Brian Encinia. He arrested her following an escalating conflict, during which he alleged that she had assaulted him and which was recorded by his dashcam and by a bystander’s cell phone. The officer was placed on administrative duty for failing to follow proper traffic stop procedures, as the release of the dashcam video supports the claim that normal procedures were not followed by the arresting officer.^{[2]  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Sandra_Bland#cite_note-ABCNewsAutopsy-4}

Blogger Hannah Adair Bonner tells a remarkable and touching story about how she and her family recently met and received a touching promise from Democratic candidate for President Sen. Bernie Sanders found here – http://soulunbound.com/2015/10/14/when-bernie-promised-to-sayhername-sandrabland/

Jesus wept.

Six church members, including a married couple, are in custody, accused of a brutal assault on two of the couple’s children that left one dead and another severely injured, according to law enforcement officials.

New Hartford, N.Y., police say Bruce and Deborah Leonard, along with four fellow churchgoers, fatally beat Lucas Leonard, 19, inside the Word of Life Church.

NPR’s Joel Rose tells our Newscast Unit that police say the beatings appear to have taken place during a meeting where the brothers were to ask forgiveness for their sins.

“Police say the brutal beatings occurred inside the Word of Life Church in New Hartford, New York. Police Chief Michael Inserra says they were part of what church members describe as a “counseling session” that turned physical.

… http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/10/14/448699761/2-brothers-beaten-1-killed-allegedly-by-their-parents-and-fellow-churchgoers

Dear Michigan Legislators… don’t punish 3rd graders for struggling to read at grade-level

—–Original Message—–

From: JEFFREYLSALISBURY@GMAIL.COM

Sent: Tuesday, October 6, 2015 8:27 AM

To: Rep. Ken Yonker <district072@house.mi.gov>

Subject: Vote NO on Mandatory Retention

October 6, 2015

The Honorable Ken Yonker

PO Box 30014 Lansing, MI 48909-7514

Dear Representative Yonker,

I am writing you today to respectfully urge to vote no on House Bill 4822 as it is currently written. While everybody should support student literacy, this bill, as written, doesn’t focus enough on the research-based interventions that have been proven to work.

Instead, it perpetuates a high-stakes testing model (for third graders!) that more and more states are actually moving away from.

Also of great concern is the inclusion of a mandatory retention provision. Research consistently shows that retaining students – holding them back a year – is detrimental to that student’s education and can have long-lasting, negative consequences. It should be a decision of last resort and one only made with parental involvement.

Ensuring that all students are proficient in reading is a laudable goal, but legislation should be centered on sound, research-based strategies rather than a test and punish philosophy for third grade students.

Please oppose House Bill 4822 and any legislation that includes mandated retention policies and instead focus your legislative efforts around research-based intervention policies that will benefit all Michigan students.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Jeffrey L Salisbury

 

On Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 1:50 PM, Rep. Ken Yonker <district072@house.mi.gov> wrote:

Jeff,

 

Thank you for contacting me with your thoughts on HB 4822.

Respectfully I must disagree with you I voted for the bill in committee and plan to vote for the bill when it comes up on the House Floor.

 

At your service,

Ken Yonker

State Representative 72nd District

Phone: (517) 373-0840

Fax: (517) 373-7590

 

​From: Jeffrey L. Salisbury <jeffreylsalisbury@gmail.com>

Date: Thu, Oct 15, 2015 at 1:55 PM

Subject: Re: Vote NO on Mandatory Retention

To: “Rep. Ken Yonker” <district072@house.mi.gov>

You’d be wiser Ken to stop telling parents and educators what’s best for their children.

 

You don’t have the knowledge, background, or skillset.

 

Along with your colleagues, continuing to do otherwise only serves to perpetuate what can only be described as your contempt for those who do.

 

Very sincerely yours,

Jeff Salisbury

###

FYI – CONTEMPTUOUS. : manifesting, feeling, or expressing deep hatred or disapproval: feeling or showing contempt

Is our form of democracy nothing more than Casino Capitalism? Can true Capitalism be saved?

BERNIE SANDERS: Do I consider myself part of the casino capitalist process by which so few have so much and so many have so little, by which Wall Street’s greed and recklessness wrecked this economy? No, I don’t.

HILLARY CLINTON: Let me follow up on that, Anderson. When I think about capitalism, I think about all the small businesses that were started because we have the opportunity and the freedom in our country for people to do that and make a good living for themselves and their families. I don’t think we should confuse what we have to do every so often in America, which is save capitalism from itself.

Too little. Too late. Save your apologies!

“Save your apologies:
BARBARA BYRD-BENNETT who took stolen school money to the casino; ROBERT BOBB, whose company profited from closing schools;
ROY ROBERTS, who let a pedophile run free and closed Oakman;
JACK MARTIN, who conceived the idea of Coalition for Detroit’s Schoolchildren; and DARNELL EARLEY, who got paid for poisoning Flint School children. These are not educated honorable black people, but Oreo tokens who believed their own hype, were hired to be thieves and colluded to regurgitate lies! Kevyn Orr said the hardest thing about being an emergency manager was getting out without an indictment.
Apology not accepted, GET OUT!
Don’t come back.”
– LaMar Lemmons​ – President, Detroit Public Schools, Board of Education

http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-barbara-byrd-bennett-apology-cps-balancing-20151014-column.html